Pages

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Knowing When to Let Go and Try Something Else

Envy soybean seedlings. They're growing quickly, I think by next week I won't be able to call them seedlings anymore.

The Black cherry tomato plant is going strong. It's starting to look a little worn out, but there are still plenty of blossoms and fruits growing on the vines.

I pulled the 2 Summertime Green tomato plants in the 26 gallon tote. No more flowers have been pollinated so after I harvested some ripe tomatoes I decided to cut my losses and grow something else in the container. This leaves me with 2 Summertime Green plants on the roof.

I'm getting better at being ruthless, last year I would have let those plants linger to the bitter end. I'm trying to be more objective this year. The 2 plants that were pulled produced less than a pound of vegetables since they were planted. Less than a pound of food out of such a large container is an incredibly inefficient use of limited growing space. If a plant can't earn its keep, out it comes.

Once I loosened up the soil I sowed 4 rows of Parmex carrot seeds and then covered them with window screen fabric to keep out birds.

The Mountain Magic tomato plant continues to drop blossoms. It hasn't been particularly hot lately so I assume it's due to environmental stress or disease. As a result, yield is reduced since I'm only harvesting a few tomatoes per flower cluster. This single plant, however, is almost out-producing the all the Summertime Green plants combined so I don't regret keeping it. I should give more thought to the source of the blossom drop problem, but in my head I've already skipped ahead to planning what I'm going to do next year.

You're right to be ruthless in regard to plants not producing enough end result to justify the space they are taking up. It took me a long time to learn this and to become disciplined in doing it but it is the right approach. Looks like you're doing well.